Many doctors do not recognize the term “brain fog.” It is not technically a medical diagnosis, but it is a common complaint I hear in the office. Although tough to describe, people will often complain of forgetfulness, slow thinking, difficulty focusing, words-finding, or clouded thoughts. They may call it “mommy brain” or “frequent senior moments” and have valid worries about Alzheimer’s disease. Short, transient bouts of “fog” related to a missed night of sleep or a physically taxing day may be normal, but when these symptoms are chronic, they are warning signs of brain inflammation and compromised health.
Addressing the root cause of these symptoms is important to restoring normal brain function. Addressing brain fog takes a comprehensive approach. Optimizing sleep, managing stress, balancing hormones, reducing sedating medications and controlling other illnesses like diabetes are all important. Diet is also an important tool to leverage. We can use our food choices to nourish our brain with important vitamins and minerals and turn on or off inflammation.
Here’s what you need to know:
Eat to nourish your brain. The health of our brain hinges in large part on what we eat. We need to consume several vitamins, minerals, fats, and antioxidants to feel our best. The only way to authentically do this is with real food. This means eating a balance of vegetables, well-sourced proteins, starchy tubers (translation: sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, plantains), fermented foods, nuts and seeds, fruit and plenty of healthy fats such as olive oil, avocado, and fatty fish (like salmon). What’s not on the plate is what most Americans are eating— sugar, refined carbs (i.e., bread, crackers, pasta, cookies, even seemingly healthy vegan baked goods and gluten-free replacement foods) and inflammatory oils, such as canola oil and fried foods.
Avoid foods that make you feel sad, foggy or tired. When we talk about eating real food, we often overlook the flip side, which is avoiding the foods that contribute to feeling poorly. This includes anything that takes our mood for a roller-coaster ride like sugar, alcohol, and caffeine and anything that inflames us like gluten, industrially processed vegetable oils, all processed foods, and dairy for some people.
As a society we prefer to add things to our diet or routine to improve our health. It may be easier to take a supplement or add a colorful superfood to the grocery list than to remove something from our diet—particularly when that something is tasty and cheap (and potentially addictive). While not popular, there is tremendous health gains to be had when we remove foods that are inflammatory or empty calories. For people struggling with brain fog I recommend completing an elimination diet for 30 days. Avoiding gluten, dairy, sugar and processed foods can give the gut and brain a reset and help you know if these foods are problematic.
Try time-restricted eating (also called intermittent fasting). Our brains are like hybrid cars. We can run on two fuel sources, glucose and ketones. When we are regularly eating, glucose is the primary fuel used by cells, including neurons. Fasting is defined by not consuming food for a long enough period of time to deplete the liver’s store of glucose. This prompts the liver to produce ketones which are essentially small pieces of fats that cells can use as an energy source. This metabolic switch— going from using glucose to using ketones as an energy source— happens after about 10 to 14 hours of not consuming food, depending on how active you are. In lab animals and we believe humans, fasting stimulates the production of a protein in nerve cells called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. This protein plays critical roles in learning, memory, and the generation of new nerve cells. BDNF also makes neurons more resistant to stress and is overall beneficial to the brain.
Need help getting started and adapting these strategies to your personal situation. Relish Health is here to help.